No. 2 Boston College men’s hockey struggled to score for the first 25 minutes of its home matchup against No. 6 Providence on Friday night.
“Providence does such a good job taking ice away, they contest all over the ice so you never get free lanes,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “You really have to work hard to create some open ice and some space.”
Ryan Leonard put an end to that—and really, who else would it have been?
The sophomore forward leads the Eagles in goals with 13 on the season and ranks fourth in the nation for goals per game.
With the Eagles on the power play, Gabe Perreault, fourth in the nation in assists per game, started the train by dishing it over to freshman James Hagens. Hagens threaded the puck inside the crease to Ryan Leonard, who sat waiting on the left side of the goal.
“James knew what he was going to do with it before he got the puck,” Brown said. “Which is always a good sign.”
As the Eagles’ man-up advantage expired, Leonard received and redirected the puck past Providence goaltender Philip Svedebäck, putting the Eagles (15–4–1, 8–3–1 Hockey East) up for the first time all evening.
“There was some tempo,” Brown said. “Felt like our power play is starting to show signs of life.”
Before Leonard’s silence-breaker, Providence (15–4–2, 5–3–2) had some good looks at a goal—probably the Friars’ best of the game. The pressure they were putting on BC was clear as they forced Jacob Fowler to make 10 saves in the middle frame, compared to just three in the first period.
But just like every other time Providence tried to send the puck past Fowler on Friday night, its efforts fell short. The sophomore goaltender tallied 24 saves and recorded his fifth shutout of the season, leading BC to a 3–0 win in front of a packed Conte Forum.
“The students are always awesome. I think we’ve all been waiting to get a Friday night game with the students back for a while,” Fowler said. “We played a lot of midweek games, and a lot of games when the students weren’t here. So we feel the support.”
BC was the first team to shut out Providence so far this season. The Friars haven’t been held scoreless in a game since Jan. 20, 2024.
With 13:36 remaining in the game, Fowler found himself in a 1-on-1 situation with Providence’s Alexander Bales. Bales took it at him, going full speed and looking to slice the puck into BC’s net to tie things up.
But Fowler made a key stop at a key time, killing Providence’s chances at making things even.
Shortly after, Hagens put things completely out of reach for Providence. Once again, Perreault initiated the play. A series of crisp passes found their way from Perreault, to Teddy Stiga, then to Hagens.
“He’s got real familiarity with Gabe, and Stiga, and Leonard,” Brown said. “The puck finds him all over the ice, just seems to find him. And he’s able to, with his skating and his vision, he’s able to create space.”
Hagens finished the play with a short-hand goal—his sixth of the season—that put BC up 2–0 with about eight minutes left to play.
An empty-net goal from Oskar Jellvik and a few more stops from Fowler later, the game was over, leaving Saturday night’s game to decide whether BC will sweep the weekend’s home-and-home series against its Hockey East opponent.
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